Can you browse?

My topic today has almost nothing to do with the wonderful image to the right of a Portland Art cow, the epitome of a browser.

I think I am almost incapable of browsing. I can't be trusted to browse!!
Last night I went to the bookshop with the purpose of buying a copy of Peter Robinson's ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS. What happened?
I came away with 4 books, even if one of them is a copy of the Books Alive freebie, Michael Robotham's mini-book BOMBPROOF. I wanted the Peter Robinson so I could enter the Hachette Livre competition.

So $100 lighter, I have copies of
ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS, Peter Robinson
IN THE DARK, Mark Billingham
THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN, Kate Morton
and the mini-book BOMBPROOF, Michael Robotham

But you know, I can't browse in the library either. Books leap off the shelves into my arms I swear. I am constantly battling the book-bulge. Mountains of books everywhere. List and lists to read. So my strategy in the library is to deal only with the online catalogue, and confine my browsing to the lists of recommendations that flow in from all the groups I belong to and the blogs I read.
That helps a bit but just at the moment I have

• 13 library books at home
• 14 library books requested
• 82 library books on my wish list - a place the library calls "my list" where I can park the titles of books I want to read sometime
• 20 books sent to me for review
• at least 30 other books I have bought or been lent to read
• and then there are the ones I bought last night

I tell you what - does anybody have a desert island on offer?
I have enough books to last me for at least a year.
I read 9-10 books a month.. so I have about 15 months supply without thinking about the big box of second hand ones I bought at the last library sale.

Next week I'm off to Darwin for a few days for work. The best part is that means a 4 hour or so flight each way - enough for 2 books!! Isn't sad when you worry not about what clothes to take, but what books!

So are you like me, unable to walk into a book store or library without carrying at least one out with a sense of triumph that Julius Caesar would envy? So what have you acquired most recently?